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Rousseff Says Brazil's Take From Libra Oil Project to Top $400 Billion

Brazil will get more than $400 billion in royalties and crude oil over the next 35 years from its share of the massive Libra offshore oil prospect, President Dilma Rousseff said Tuesday. In her weekly question-and-answer column with Brazilians, Ms. Rousseff said that new production-sharing agreements for Brazil’s offshore oil discoveries ensured the country’s "sovereignty over this treasure, with great benefits for the population and our economy." Ms. Rousseff’s administration has faced criticism from Brazilians who viewed the sale of the field as delivering Brazil’s natural resources into the hands of foreign companies. Protests marred the October auction, which featured heavy security by soldiers who fired tear gas in an attempt to disperse the crowd gathered outside the hotel where the sale was held. But the auction also generated lukewarm interest from private-sector companies that balked at the terms of the production-sharing agreements and heavy government oversight […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Rousseff Says Brazil’s Take From Libra Oil Project to Top $400 Billion

Brazil will get more than $400 billion in royalties and crude oil over the next 35 years from its share of the massive Libra offshore oil prospect, President Dilma Rousseff said Tuesday. In her weekly question-and-answer column with Brazilians, Ms. Rousseff said that new production-sharing agreements for Brazil’s offshore oil discoveries ensured the country’s "sovereignty over this treasure, with great benefits for the population and our economy." Ms. Rousseff’s administration has faced criticism from Brazilians who viewed the sale of the field as delivering Brazil’s natural resources into the hands of foreign companies. Protests marred the October auction, which featured heavy security by soldiers who fired tear gas in an attempt to disperse the crowd gathered outside the hotel where the sale was held. But the auction also generated lukewarm interest from private-sector companies that balked at the terms of the production-sharing agreements and heavy government oversight […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Petrobras Announces Discovery of Oil in Potiguar Basin

Petroleo Brasileiro SA or Petrobras, said Tuesday it found the first oil in the deep water of the Potiguar basin off the coast of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Norte. The oil was found in the 1-BRS-A-1205-RNS (1-RNS-158) well, also known as Pitu, under 1.1 miles of water 34.2 miles off the coast, the company said in an note to Brazil’s financial markets regulator. Write to Jeffrey T. Lewis at [email protected]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Venezuela revamping its currency control system

Venezuela is overhauling decade-old currency controls to benefit its struggling oil industry and arrest the decline of the bolivar on the black market. Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez says the government’s nine-month-old U.S. dollar auction system will be expanded next year to provide a more favorable exchange rate to oil companies, tourists and the central bank’s gold purchases. Ramirez denies the move represents a stealth devaluation, though he says the auction mechanism will gradually replace the so-called Cadivi system that’s used to mete out dollars to Venezuelans. The government currently sells a dollar for 6.3 bolivars, but access is restricted and the greenback costs more than 10 times that amount on the black market. Ramirez doesn’t say what exchange rate will be used at the auctions. Ramirez made the announcement Monday. […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Venezuela’s president tightens grip on media

As Gov. Henrique Capriles campaigned for president of Venezuela last April, he couldn’t venture more than a few steps without being hounded by dozens of sharp-elbowed cameramen and photographers. Nearly eight months later, the visibly thinner and exhausted opposition leader is accompanied by just a handful of journalists at what was supposed to be one of the final, electrifying opposition rallies ahead of this weekend’s mayoral elections. Critics say the shrinking media coverage has been deliberate. Even while Venezuelans endure their toughest economic crisis in 15 years of socialist rule, the opposition has been largely knocked from public view by what they claim is a government-led campaign to intimidate media outlets that give airtime to the opposition and the nation’s mounting woes. Between January and September, the number of attacks on journalists, cases of harassment and reports of censorship has risen 56 percent […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Venezuela's president tightens grip on media

As Gov. Henrique Capriles campaigned for president of Venezuela last April, he couldn’t venture more than a few steps without being hounded by dozens of sharp-elbowed cameramen and photographers. Nearly eight months later, the visibly thinner and exhausted opposition leader is accompanied by just a handful of journalists at what was supposed to be one of the final, electrifying opposition rallies ahead of this weekend’s mayoral elections. Critics say the shrinking media coverage has been deliberate. Even while Venezuelans endure their toughest economic crisis in 15 years of socialist rule, the opposition has been largely knocked from public view by what they claim is a government-led campaign to intimidate media outlets that give airtime to the opposition and the nation’s mounting woes. Between January and September, the number of attacks on journalists, cases of harassment and reports of censorship has risen 56 percent […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Venezuela cyber crackdown ensnares Web’s Bitly

Venezuelans have been scrambling for dollars for weeks, taking refuge in the greenback as their own currency is in free fall. Rather than address the economic imbalances behind the bolivar’s plunge, the government is going after the bearers of the bad news – it’s taking down websites people use to track exchange rates on the black market. Cyber-activists say the crackdown goes to absurd lengths, even targeting Bitly, the popular site for shortening Web addresses to make it easier to send them as links via Twitter and other social media. For more than two weeks, access to the service has been partially censored by several Internet service providers in Venezuela, apparently because Bitly was being used to evade blocks put on currency-tracking websites. The New York company says such restrictions have only previously been seen in China, which has one of the worst […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Venezuela cyber crackdown ensnares Web's Bitly

Venezuelans have been scrambling for dollars for weeks, taking refuge in the greenback as their own currency is in free fall. Rather than address the economic imbalances behind the bolivar’s plunge, the government is going after the bearers of the bad news – it’s taking down websites people use to track exchange rates on the black market. Cyber-activists say the crackdown goes to absurd lengths, even targeting Bitly, the popular site for shortening Web addresses to make it easier to send them as links via Twitter and other social media. For more than two weeks, access to the service has been partially censored by several Internet service providers in Venezuela, apparently because Bitly was being used to evade blocks put on currency-tracking websites. The New York company says such restrictions have only previously been seen in China, which has one of the worst […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Brazil October Crude Oil Output Falls on Lower Pre-Salt Output

Brazil’s crude oil production fell slightly in October on reduced output from recently discovered offshore fields, the country’s National Petroleum Agency, or ANP, said Tuesday. Brazil produced an average 2.079 million barrels a day in October, down 0.7% from September but up 3.4% from October 2012, the ANP said. October’s output was undercut by operational troubles at a floating platform tapping oil deposits in Brazil’s pre-salt oil frontier, where billions of barrels of crude oil were discovered trapped under a thick layer of salt miles below the seabed, the ANP said. Pre-salt production fell to 308,400 barrels a day in October, down 6.5% from September, the ANP said. State-run energy giant Petroleo Brasileiro (PBR, PETR4.BR), or Petrobras, has boosted production in recent months as several new platforms were installed at offshore oil fields. The company has also completed renovations of several aging platforms in the Campos Basin, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple